Page 41 - USA ROAD TRIP SUMMER of 2000

the Grizzly. No longer. So the herds just grow and grow. They

round them up every couple of years and give some to the local
Indian tribes. They raise some and eat some. One cow returned to

the Park two times from 25 miles away so they just gave up and

let her stay.

North Dakota was hit badly by the Depression and the severe
droughts of the 1930’s. Many small ranches failed. Consequently,

there are projects here by the Civilian Conservation Corps ( the
CCC) that the unemployed of this area built with FDR’s work

program. How many times have we seen massive park work
projects that were the result of that terrible time in our history??

Seventy years later, many of these building efforts of structures

and roads are in need of repair. We’ll see what the next Federal
Administration does in that regard.

Lois and I took a three-hour hike this morning. It was a fabulous

hike as it first took us through a self-guided walk through a ravine.
There we could easily see the unique geology of this Park with the

erosion that uncovers the multi-layered examples of sedimentary
rock. The interpretive section completed, the trail climbed a steep

grade up onto the grassland plateaus. From there, we had

splendid vistas of the Little Missouri Valley to the east and in the
opposite direction, the tops of the other plateaus marching off to

the West. The wind was brisk from the Southeast and cooled us
down a bit. When we got into small stands of trees on the north

facing slopes, we thought we’d be cooler. Not so. It was much
better in the sun on the ridges with the breeze.

Along the way, we encountered a solitary Bison bull lying down

and chewing his cud right next to the trail. He was very interested

in us as we approached. To avoid him, we climbed a bluff and

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